by Latisha Carr

I met the #1 Speaker in the World Blog Post

I don’t know about you all, but when I hear the name Eric Thomas aka ET The Hip Hop Preacher, the very first thing I think of is “When you want to succeed as bad as you want to breathe, then you’ll be successful”. This weekend I realized that wanting it badly is just the prelude to the work it takes to get it. This weekend I had the opportunity to volunteer for Eric Thomas’ Stay Ready Conference in Philadelphia, PA. The conference was as expected dynamic, and featured Inky Johnson, Jeremy Anderson, and David Shands as well. I took away so much from not only the speakers but every aspect of the conference.

Lesson One: Get To The Spot

The first lesson came before anyone spoke a word on stage. I live in Washington, DC and again this event was in Philadelphia, about a 2+ hour drive away. When the opportunity to volunteer was offered, I did not waste one second before committing to being there, although it required me to be in Philadelphia by 7am the day of the event. I made it happen, I woke up at 3am, hit the road by 430am and was in Philadelphia by 645am. I had to be there, I had to get to the spot that the opportunity was present in. Many people miss opportunities of a life time because they are not convenient or local to them. This is the first lesson I learned, get to the spot of the opportunity, don’t wait for the opportunity to get to you.

Lesson Two: Energy Is Essential

The second lesson I learned from the moment my duty as a volunteer started. My task was to be a part of the “Energy Team”, yes ET has a team of volunteers specifically to keep the energy up at the conference. This lesson is so impactful because you never know how your energy will impact someone else. Greeting a person with a smile and a hello can change their entire day, and you can take it to another level by pouring even more positive energy into their day with a hug or a compliment. You never know who you may run into that will need that positive energy from you. ET told the team to be the power source for people, charge them up. That’s exactly what we did.

Lesson Three: Build A Family, Not Just A Business

As you should have noticed at this point, this article is not about the speech ET gave, but about the nuances of the experience of being a part of his event. The biggest and most critical lesson I learned being a volunteer was simply to treat everyone with love and respect. ET, other speakers, and their teams treated every person from one another, to guests, to volunteers with love and respect. This is a lesson many corporations, non-profits, and business owners should take note of, but you as an individual should as well. At this point I want to volunteer for every one of ET’s upcoming conferences simply because of how I was treated. Treating people well, with respect, and having them feel just as much of the vision as you or any one on the team is will take you and your business and/or career to new heights. If you take nothing else out of this article remember this one thing, treat everyone with love and respect and you are guaranteed to be successful.

Bonus Lesson: Never Be Afraid To Serve Others

This last lesson is a game changer. Taking the time out to volunteer and serve for someone else’s vision that you are aligned with will create opportunities that even money may not be able to buy you. I said yes to an opportunity to volunteer and I did not just learn from what each speaker had to say, but I learned that it’s more important to get to the opportunity than it is to wait for the opportunity to come to you, I learned the impact of having positive energy around you, and I learned how to treat people even when you reach high levels in your own success. I learned lessons that I may have missed if I did not volunteer to serve for someone else’s vision.

Meet Latisha Carr:

Latisha is a Millennial Life Coach and founder of Where Do You Dream, LLC a life coaching company for millennials and dream chasers. Latisha works with millennials to Dream Outside of Fear and build a life they love. Recently Latisha launched her first successful event in the DC area, “The State of Our 20s: Schoolin’ Life Edition”, a one day conference focused on teaching the things not taught in school including creating your own opportunities, entrepreneurship, and building meaningful relationships.

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